At just £2.76 from amazon.co.uk, this is
a wonderful bargain – a version of the Romantic with a strong
claim to be considered the best ever, in decent mp3 sound (256kbps).
I got to know this much-played symphony long ago in a performance
by Klemperer with the Vienna SO on a Vox LP; his fast tempi then
– yes, he was something of a speed merchant until his last years
– made that the first version to fit on one LP. That performance
is available on a 2-CD set with Rosbaud’s Mahler 7 on Vox CDX2-5520,
available from classicsonline.
Wand is slower, allowing us to view the scenery – and what wonderful
scenery it is in this life-enhancing performance. I’d have preferred
a lossless download, but the mp3 copes pretty well with the music’s
climaxes. Amazon also have Wand’s NDR and BPO versions of the Eighth
Symphony at the same low price of £2.76; the Ninth is even less
expensive at £2.07.

The Hallé have recently
issued a recording of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, conducted
by ChristianMandeal on their own label (CDHLL7524)
and available as a download from classicsonline.
It’s very well played, idiomatically directed, and the mp3 sound
does the music justice, yet it failed quite to come alive for me,
as Wand’s Romantic Symphony does. You would be safer with
Wand or Bruno Walter’s classic Ninth Symphony, both available from
amazon.co.uk for £2.07.

This recording
was originally issued in 1996 to a warm welcome. Its reissue at
half the original price deserves no less a welcome now, especially
as it is still the only available recording of Arne’s one and only
opera seria – generally regarded as the first of its kind
in English – or, indeed, of any of his longer vocal works. Peter
Holman, who also contributes the notes, deserves our thanks for
reconstructing the lost, fire-damaged, items in such a way as to
make the work performable.

There
isn’t a single vocal weakness throughout, with the possible exception
of Ian Partridge’s Artabanes – a beautiful voice, as always, but
perhaps a little light-toned for this part. With small reservations
about the balance between voice(s) and orchestra, the recording
is excellent. The presentation is of Hyperion’s usual high quality.
I have submitted a more complete review of the parent CDs for Musicweb’s
main pages; it may well have been posted by the time that you read
this Roundup. At £7.99 for two CDs (mp3 or flac), this could easily
have been my Bargain Download of the Month.

Bob Briggs’ review
ends “Buy it. Cherish it. Let’s not let this fine composer disappear
from our sights ever again” and Jonathan Woolf thought the recording
“well worth the wait”, with Lane and Wallfisch the ideal exponents
– see review.
With Vernon Handley in charge of proceedings and a decent mp3 transfer
of the Lyrita recording, all for the price of six tracks, potentially
less than £2, if you didn’t buy the CD, go for the download. Four
of the tracks are at the maximum 320kbps and none is less than 192k.

Peter
Bright made this Recording of the Month in May, 2008 – see review
– and I have no hesitation in following suit and placing this at
the head of my recommendations of music for Holy Week. As with
Handel’s Messiah, of which the same team have also made an
excellent version, there is no one single definitive Matthew
Passion – Bach made several revisions. This is claimed as the
only recording to use the final 1742 version. For that reason alone
it would be worth considering, but there is much more to it than
that: I might prefer individual aspects of Gardiner’s Archiv recording,
but there is very little to choose between them.

The
recording runs to 101 tracks: don’t try to download each one manually
– use Linn’s splendid download manager. Squeezebox placed tracks
100 and 101 between tracks 10 and 11 – renaming them 99A and 99B
in Windows Explorer solved the problem.

The Roman rite
prescribes – or used to – the reading of passages from the Lamentations
of Jeremiah for Matins on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy
Saturday (Easter Eve); these passages form the first three of the
nine nocturns into which the readings for those days are divided
and the readings are interspersed with a number of Versicles and
Responses, usually known as Tenebræ Responsories, from the
practice which developed of anticipating Matins for these three
days on the preceding evenings, with a hearse of candles extinguished
one by one until only one was left, to signify the light of Christ
shining in the darkness (Latin tenebræ = darkness).

The
new Gimell recording, which could easily have been my Download
of the Month, gives us the complete series of Lamentations
which Victoria composed, in affective performances which match the
emotive tone of the music: as Peter Phillips notes, the Spanish
view of the Passion involves plenty of blood and nails and there
is plenty of that in these performances. The programme is rounded
off with a performance of Padilla’s Maundy Thursday Lamentations
in a performance to rival that of The Sixteen on Coro (Streams
of Tears, COR16059 – see review).
As usual, I’m not going to try to judge between two such fine performances,
especially when, on this occasion, the Tallis Scholars surprised
me by taking the Padilla slightly faster than The Sixteen – the
boot is usually on the other foot. There is also an excellent performance
of the Padilla Lamentations on a recent Hyperion Helios budget
reissue, also available to download
(CDH55317 – see review).
We really are spoiled for choice.

As
with the Linn Matthew Passion, Gimell’s splendid download
manager - it’s of the same provenance as the Linn - will download
this recording excellently.

Victoria’s 1585
Officium Hebdomadæ Sanctæ also contained the Responsories
which were interspersed between the readings of the second and third
nocturns. Ideally, someone should record the whole office together,
as the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, with Richard Marlow,
partially did on a deleted Conifer CD (CDCF188). That well-filled
recording combined the nine lessons of the first nocturns, as on
the new Tallis Scholars’ recording, with the responsories of the
second nocturn. The next best thing, however, is to have the new
Gimell recording of the Lamentations together with the Responsories
on their earlier recording (CDGIM022) or in the version recorded
by Westminster Cathedral Choir under David Hill on Hyperion.
If I choose the latter, that is an attempt to be even-handed: no
reflection on the excellent earlier Gimell CD – I haven’t heard
the download but the parent CD is first-rate. The Hyperion recording
is a worthy successor to an earlier Westminster Cathedral recording
under George Malcolm, which was a staple of the LP catalogue for
many years and was until recently available on a Double Decca (433
9142).

With the exception
of the Ferrabosco, these recordings all exist on other Gimell CDs
– you’ll find the Tallis, for example, on The Tallis Scholars
sing Tallis (CDGIM203), the Palestrina on The Tallis Scholars
sing Palestrina (CDGIM204) and the White on The Tallis Scholars
sing Tudor Music 2 (CDGIM210), three excellent value 2-for-1
compilations. It is convenient to have the music together in this
fashion, but the parent discs also contain other very valuable recordings.
That is my only reservation about recommending Lamenta; it’s
all very well for reviewers like myself to recommend that you purchase
this recording plus all the others. Unfortunately, if you followed
that advice, Gimell’s reissue policy means that you would end up
with a great deal of costly duplication.

The
two Tallis works come from CDGIM025, but this is the least of the
losses, since the Lamentations from this CD are contained
here on Lamenta and on CDGIM203 and the remainder of the
programme on CDGIM210 – see my review
of the latter, which also contains the White Lamentations.
There is a rival recording of the Tallis in the complete works which
Chapelle du Roi recorded for Signum (Volume 8: SIGCD036, coupled
with some of Tallis’s contrafacta, or alternative English
settings). On that Signum recording Alistair Dixon takes the music
at a slightly faster pace than Peter Phillips, though he retains
the music’s essential character in another very recommendable version.
(See review in December, 2008, Roundup).

The
Brumel Lamentations come from a CD which includes his superb
‘Earthquake’ Mass (CDGIM026) – it would be a pity not to obtain
the whole of this disc: see my review
in the January, 2009, Download Roundup. Gimell ride to the rescue
again with The Tallis Scholars sing Flemish Masters (CDGIM211),
which includes the Mass – my Reissue of the Month for November,
2009 – see review.
The Palestrina programme on CDGIM204 is even more essential, since
it contains the Missa Papæ Marcelli and other wonderful music.

I
made the 2-disc set containing Robert White’s Lamentations
my Bargain of the Month – see review.
They are also available on CDGIM030, along with other works by this
composer. They are the odd ones out here, having been composed
in post-reformation England and, not, therefore, intended for performance
within the Roman Holy Week liturgy, since the Elizabethan Book of
Common Prayer (1559) had transferred the Matins readings from Lamentations,
retained in 1549, to earlier in the week and replaced them with
other lessons, from Hosea, Daniel, Genesis and Zechariah.

I’ve
included some out-of-the-way music as well as the more familiar.
I hadn’t even heard of the North German composer Thomas Selle before
trying this recording, so he might easily have featured as my Discovery
of the Month. The music is attractive, especially the central account
of the resurrection, Historia der Auferstehung – if you already
know and like Schütz and Buxtehude, you can’t go wrong – the performances
stylish and the recording good, in an mp3 transcription of near-CD
quality. For £4.99 from classicsonline, this is emphatically well
worth a try.

The
best current version of HeinrichSchütz’s Historia
der Auferstehung, from René Jacobs on Harmonia Mundi, appears
not to be available as a download; try Peter Schreier on Berlin
Classics 0092052BC, from various sources, including classicsonline,
or Paul Hillier on Da Capo 8.226058, again from classicsonline
– both available for just £4.99.

A series of meditations
in Latin on the limbs of the crucified Christ hardly sounds like
fun, but such is the beauty of Buxtehude’s music that its gloomier
associations can be forgotten. The contemplation of aspects of
the life of Christ, especially of the crucifixion, had been an important
ingredient since the late medieval period – witness the wealth of
English lyric poetry from the 14th and 15th
centuries, some of it set by polyphonic composers – and remained
a prominent ingredient of high Lutheran piety in Buxtehude’s day.
Here, however, it comes shorn of the horror of Mathias Grünewald’s
famous painting from an earlier generation, with composer and performers
concentrating on the mystic beauty of the experience. There are
several good versions of this fascinating work, but this is one
of the best. More recent Linn downloads come with notes, but they
are notably lacking here.

This
is not ‘essential’ listening, but that’s the point – Hyperion are
particularly good at assisting us down such productive byways and
we can hardly refuse when the price is so attractive. Zelenka is
well worth getting to know, not just because he’s almost the last
composer in alphabetical order and the performances and recording
do him justice.

There
are two recommendable ways of obtaining the so-called Easter
Oratorio (actually cantata 149) from classicsonline, as part
of a 4-CD set from Hänssler, in very reliable performances directed
by Helmuth Rilling at an attractive price (£19.96 for the set) or
in the even more recommendable version with Philippe Herreweghe
from Harmonia Mundi. Both offer splendidly stylish performances
and both come in very good mp3 sound, though the Hänssler is ADD.

One
small grumble about the Hänssler: despite what it says on the cover,
the German title (zum Osterfestkreis, for the Easter period)
is more accurate – these are cantatas for Palm Sunday and Easter
(CD1) and for the Easter season (CD2), Ascension (CD3) and Pentecost
or Whitsun (CD4).

Raymond Walker
praised “a [mainly] splendid performance and recording. Appreciation
should be handed to Da Capo for bringing about a revival of exciting
works of Weyse and recognising the importance of their heritage.”
- see review.
The download comes in good mp3 sound but devoid, unfortunately,
of the excellent notes to which RW referred. Section 6 of the Christmas
Cantata (track 6) is wrongly labelled Section 1 in the track
information – but it will play in the right order on Squeezebox.
It’s hardly essential listening, but a refreshing and attractive
change from the better-known Eastertide music. Much of it made
me think of Mendelssohn.

Good performances
and recording on Hyperion
of Rimsky’s best-known symphony and the effervescent Easter Festival
Overture – a real treat if you’ve been listening to all those
Lamentations, and the ideal next move if you know Sheherazade
and want to try more of the composer’s music. The notes, which
are available to download, explain the complex compositional history
of Antar. The only real complaint is that 48 minutes is
very short value; £5.99 is inexpensive, but short downloads usually
attract a reduction in price from Hyperion, and this one seems to
have slipped through the net.

The
Chandos 2-for-1 offering represents better value – £10 for
the lossless version or £7.99 for the mp3 – and almost equally fine
performances if you want all three symphonies plus Sadko
and the Piano Concerto. Take your pick – you can’t go wrong
with either. Unusually, there are no notes with the Chandos.

Though
not exactly Easter music in the conventional sense, the action of
Cavalleria Rusticana takes place on Easter Day and it contains
the wonderful Easter hymn Regina cœli – Ineggiamo il signor
non è morto. I have already recommended as a superb bargain
the Callas-Di Stefano-Serafin mono version on Past Classics in the
October, 2009, Roundup – just one track from eMusic or 79p from
Amazon.co.uk – but you may prefer a more recent stereo recording,
in which case this Scotto-Domingo-Levine recording should provide
what you want. At £4.98 from Amazon.co.uk, it’s half the price
of the CD and almost as much a bargain as the Past Classics version.

The three items
which make this suitable for Passiontide and Easter will be obvious
– two of them are billed on the CD cover – but the recording is
valuable for the other items, too, not least the two settings of
the Evensong canticles, which open and close the programme. John
Quinn “strongly recommend[ed] this CD to all who love the music
of the English church” – see review
– and, as so often, I find myself in complete agreement with him.
The mp3 sound is good. Unlike the Weyse, from the same source,
the booklet comes with the purchase.

Downloading
may be the only way to obtain this by the time that you read the
review – only limited copies of the CD were available when I last
checked. The music, old and new(ish) covers Lent, Passiontide,
especially Good Friday, and Easter. The performances are as accomplished
in their way as their Roman Catholic counterparts in the music of
Victoria and the recording sounds well in lossless format. Unusually,
there is no booklet to download.

Of
recent years the best recordings of the Goldberg Variations
have been on the piano – not least from Angela Hewitt (Hyperion
CDA67305 – see review:
five stars all round).

Matthew
Halls, now better known as the director of the former King’s Consort,
bucks the trend by offering the music on a 2-manual harpsichord
and by including all the repeats, thereby making his recording too
long for a single CD. In the latter respect, he has the field entirely
to himself, as far as I am aware. I was not convinced by the recent
Virgin 2-CD budget-price reissue of Bob van Asperen’s performance
of the Goldbergs (6931982 – see review);
though I liked the Toccatas on the other CD, I felt that there was
a need for a modern recording on the harpsichord to rival Trevor
Pinnock on mid-price DG 477 5902.

Having
greatly appreciated Halls’s recent recording of Handel’s Parnasso
in Festa (Hyperion CDA67701/2: Recording of the Month – see
review)
I had high expectations of his Bach. I was not disappointed. I
just wonder whether 91 minutes is not a little too long for the
average listener – we aren’t all insomniacs, as the original recipient
is supposed to have been. For that reason alone, I shall not be
ditching my copy of the Pinnock. Bach scholars, on the other hand,
will particularly welcome the ability to hear the work at its full
length.

Linn’s
24-bit recording is excellent and, being at 44.1kHz, will play on
Squeezebox, but it does take up a great deal of space, at over 1.5GB.
In whatever form you choose – mp3 and ‘ordinary’ lossless are also
available – an advantage of downloading is the ability to play the
Goldbergs without break; on CD a change is required.

Most of the reviews
in my Download Roundups have not been of the most basic repertoire.
In particular, I seem to have short-changed the Beethoven Symphonies,
with only Carlos Kleiber’s outstanding versions of the Fifth and
Seventh receiving a mention in December, 2008. It’s high time,
then, to look at the whole series and to make some recommendations.

It
isn’t always a good idea to go for the complete works from the same
interpreter, but I make an exception for a set which comes at a special price as
a download, that recorded by Hyperion with Sir Charles Mackerras
and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, live at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival.
The special price of £34.95 for the CDs is further reduced to £24.99
for the mp3 or lossless download, making it competitive with Vänskä
on BIS: fine performances, well recorded and competitively priced.
I’ve used this set, therefore, as my benchmark for other downloads.
If you don’t want the whole set, individual symphonies may be purchased
separately at prices ranging from £3.25 to £7.80. As usual with
Hyperion, the booklet comes as part of the deal.

The BIS set, with
Osmo Vänskä conducting the Minneapolis SO, was recently not
only Recording of the Month but Dominy Clements’ choice to go to
‘the top of a pile of an already rather distinguished pile of references’
– see review.
If you intend to plump for the whole set, you would be better advised
to go for the physical discs, available for around £26, especially
if you want the SACD tracks. Buying the five individual recordings
from classicsonline in 320kbps mp3 would cost almost twice as much,
at just under £40. The equivalent from amazon.co.uk comes in slightly
lower quality 256kbps mp3 for just under £35.

The
least expensive way to download these performances individually
or en bloc is from emusic; I’ve included the recording of
Nos.2 and 7 from them, potentially costing as little as £2, depending
on your chosen tariff. Some tracks are at the full 320k, others
at a dangerously low 169k. The Choral Symphony is even better
value – just 4 tracks. There isn’t a single track higher than 175k
in the Choral, but I was not too disappointed with the sound
of either of these emusic downloads. Classicsonline (320k) and
amazon (256k) offer them both at better bit-rates but more expensively.

Karajan’s 1977 Galleria
CD of Nos.1 and 4, with the Egmont Overture, is no longer
available as a passionato download in good mp3 sound, as it was
when I began this review. I’ve had to replace it with the later
versions of Nos.1 and 2. The ‘lighter’ symphonies especially benefit
from Mackerras’s treatment, but I have included this Karajan recording
for those who like Beethoven to sound a little bigger-boned from
the start. His version of No.1 became slower and meatier in the
interim between the Galleria and Karajan Gold recordings.

I’ve also included
some of the LSO Live recordings conducted by Bernard Haitink.
These are no longer available from passionato, who have ‘lost’ the
LSO Live label. You will find emusic the least expensive way to
obtain these recordings, but I haven’t been able to sample any of
them, so I can’t guarantee the bit-rates, which tend to be variable,
but (just) acceptable from this source. Hatink’s versions of Nos.
2 and 6 are among the best.

The classic account
of the Eroica is Klemperer’s mono version, with tempi
noticeably faster than his stereo re-make. It comes with two Leonore
Overtures from EMI in the Great Recordings series, or with a slightly
different coupling from Naxos. Both transfers are very good; since
the Naxos is the less expensive, both on CD and as a download, that’s
the one to go for. The lossless version which was available on
passionato seems to have disappeared in their recent revamp, though
they still have the EMI and classicsonline have the Naxos in good
mp3.

Carlos Kleiber’s
Fifth has long been a classic; for me it ranks alongside his father’s
recording of Mozart’s Figaro. It was my Bargain of the Month
in December 2008, when it was briefly available from Passionato
for £2.99. At £7.99 now, it’s barely competitive with the parent
CD, but, whichever you choose, CD or download, it remains at or
very near the top of recordings of this much-recorded work. Coupled
with an almost equally desirable Seventh and in decent 320kbps mp3
sound, it beats even the fine Mackerras into second place in the
Fifth.

The
least expensive of the alternatives to the Hyperion set comes in
amazon.co.uk’s price for the Harnoncourt coupling of Nos.
6 and 8 – just £2.76 for this worthwhile download of two of the
performances which set the pace for small-scale modern-instrument
performances with awareness of period-instrument practice – just
the kind of performance which Mackerras offers. If I think that
Mackerras marginally beats Harnoncourt at his own game and that
his performance sounds better in Hyperion’s lossless recording than
in Amazon’s very acceptable 256kbps mp3, that doesn’t diminish the
value of the Teldec download – I could happily live with this Pastoral
and its coupling. Amazon also have the complete Harnoncourt
set for £13.29.

Douglas
Boyd’s performances of Nos. 4 and 7 with the Manchester Camerata
are comparable with those of Mackerras in that they both use small
ensembles but neither lacks punch where it’s called for. Many years
ago, one of the first performances that I heard of the Seventh was
from the chamber-size Haydn Orchestra – then something of a novelty
– and both these chamber-size performances are excellent. I just
miss slightly those touches of the manic late Beethoven that Bruno
Walter brought out in his break-neck performance of the finale,
but compensation comes from the way in which Boyd captures the apotheosis
of the dance, Wagner’s apt description of this symphony – he danced
on the piano top for Liszt, to demonstrate. The Archipel reissue
of Walter’s Seventh, coupled with the Emperor Concerto, is
available from amazon; the NYPO nearly come off the rails in the
finale.

Mackerras
captures the manic quality of No.7 better than Boyd, with mostly
slightly faster tempi, but without losing the spirit of the dance
which pervades the music. Much as I like Boyd, Mackerras’s is the
chamber orchestra version to go for. Though he actually takes a
few seconds longer than Boyd in the finale, he manages to sound
livelier. Hyperion’s lossless (flac) recording is also superior
to emusic’s mp3 – the bit-rate of the latter varies from a minimal
172kbps to a much more acceptable 320k.

Both
Mackerras and Harnoncourt offer lively performances of No.8. Mackerras
couples it with his excellent version of No.7 – the perfect coupling,
I think – Harnoncourt with a fine No.6. Both are well recorded,
though the mp3 download of the Teldec version sounds a trifle muffled
by comparison with Hyperion’s lossless (flac) sound. I marginally
prefer the Mackerras performance, too, though I could be happy with
either; remember that the Teldec coupling costs just £2.76 from
amazon.co.uk.

Mackerras
changed from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to the Philharmonia
for the Ninth. There are so many really good versions of this symphony
that I could spend the rest of the Roundup detailing them. Suffice
it to say that I don’t think you’ll have cause for complaint from
either Mackerras or Vänskä. If anything, the latter has a slightly
lighter touch in the first three movements and I marginally prefer
his soloists.

This is basic repertoire again, especially
the Tchaikovsky. The Chung/Previn combination has seldom been equalled
and the ADD recording comes up very well in mp3 sound of the best
(320kbps). Strongly recommended unless you must have the Sibelius
in its original as well as the final version, in which case you
need Kavakos and Vänskä on BIS (BISCD500).

When
I downloaded this recording, Originals were all £4.99 from passionato.
At the regular £7.99, they now become only barely less expensive
than the physical CDs. Incredibly, however, this recording seems
to be available only as a download in the UK. Amazon.co.uk offer
it slightly more cheaply at £5.98, but at the lower bit-rate of
256k.

This
may not be exactly essential listening, but it is very entertaining
and it typifies Toccata’s enterprise in offering out-of-the-way
music. I first heard Josef Suk play his great-grandfather’s music
in the early 1960s on a Supraphon recording of the Dvořák Violin
Concerto, and I’m delighted to hear that he is still going strong
– here playing both the violin and his great-grandfather’s viola.
With very able support from Vladimir Ashkenazy – joint patron, with
Suk, of the Toccata label – and good recording in 320kbps mp3, with
an optional lossless version promised soon, you would be hard put
not to like this recording.

Just
one grumble – the promised sleeve-notes are not available. At least
what we do have is not in the fractured English which Supraphon
used to employ: as I recall, their notes informed us that ‘Josef
Suk is grand grandson of Dvořák; since 1954 he plays violin
in all countries of people’s democracy’. Stuck for a Russian transliteration
of Down Ampney, the notes on another Supraphon LP sleeve transferred
Vaughan Williams’s birthplace to London! Incidentally, if you
are looking for a good download of that Supraphon Dvořák recording,
you’ll find that it is still available, still sounding well, in
its original coupling with the Romance here,
or coupled with Suk’s Fantasy here,
or in a later Suk/Neumann recording here,
from eMusic.

This, the last
in the series of orchestral suites, is every bit the equal of the
earlier volumes, the first of which was a MusicWeb Recording of
the Year for 2009. There are two very different operas here, but
the combination is very welcome. I downloaded it from passionato.com
immediately after their complete site revamp, when the flac download
was not available; I was completely happy with the mp3 (at 320kbps).

These
two recordings might well have been placed with the Easter music
at the head of this month’s reviews, since the first of VW’s Mystical
Songs sets the words of George Herbert’s Easter. All
five Songs offer wonderful settings of marvellous poetry – I rate
Herbert even more highly than his fellow metaphysical poet, John
Donne.

There
is very little to choose between the recordings: both are excellent
and superior to Hyperion’s other version of this work on Helios
CDH55004, where it’s coupled with an under-strength version of the
Tudor Portraits. The coupling may well be left to decide
the issue – from Chandos a very good performance of Dona Nobis
Pacem and from Hyperion, on a more generously filled CD, equally
fine performances of the Serenade to Music, Christmas
Fantasia and Flos Campi. I’m not a great fan of the
Serenade, though it’s VW’s best-known choral work and sets
some marvellous poetry by Shakespeare; of all the versions that
I’ve heard, this came closest to persuading me.

Lost in
the Stars,
based on Alan Paton’s powerful novel Cry, the Beloved Country,
represents the fruits of Kurt Weill’s Broadway collaboration with
Maxwell Anderson in the late 1940s. It may not be comparable with
his acknowledged masterpieces, but it contains some fine music and
deserves to be better known. It selects episodes from the plot,
which makes it difficult to follow for anyone who doesn’t know the
novel. The parent CD’s detailed plot summary, is not included with
the download.

Julius
Rudel had already had considerable experience of conducting an opera
which he regarded as the equal of la Bohème, so his version
has a claim to be definitive. His singing cast does well by the
music, too. Stephen Kumalo, the Anglican priest at the centre of
the story, and Cynthia Clary as Absalom’s girlfriend both give impressive
and affecting accounts of themselves, while resisting the temptation
to overdo the pathos in an opera dangerously close to sentimentality,
but Carol Woods (Linda) brings the house down with her jazzy double-entendre
laden Who’ll buy my juicy rutabagas? (tr.8). Shades of Ella
Fitzgerald here.

The
orchestral contribution is good, too, especially in the Entr’acte
at the heart of the action (tr.13). Limited to a very small orchestra,
Weill made the best use of what he had, and the Orchestra of St
Luke’s make the best use of what he gives them in a convincing evocation
of a musical pit orchestra. You probably wouldn’t choose Lost
in the Stars in preference to Mahagonny or The Seven
Deadly Sins, but it doesn’t deserve its neglect, and this is
the recording to put things right. Nimbus’s enterprise in reissuing
it deserves to be rewarded.

I
agree with Johann van Veen – see review
– in welcoming this enterprising recording and with his reservation
that the tenor, Giano Paolo Fagotto, is a little too loud: I had
to turn the volume down. The mp3 sound is good, but I understand
that optional lossless downloads are due from Toccata shortly.
The promised information on Castaldi and the sleeve-notes were not
available when I tried; the only review was in Italian. Toccata
downloads are reasonably priced, but joining their Discovery Club
brings a useful discount on CDs and downloads.

This
is so good that at the end, like Gary Higginson – see review
– I was left hoping for more. The download comes without texts,
however, which you really need. Use the link in GH’s review to
order the CD direct from MusicWeb if the lack of texts represents
a serious loss.

Please
refer to my recent review
of Angela East’s recording of these Cello Suites on Red Priest RP006
for a comparison with her version and the classic recordings of
Fournier and Tortelier – and a preference for this Hyperion version
among modern recordings. See also review
by Dominy Clements. The Fournier and Tortelier versions are
available as downloads from passionato.

I
was completely convinced by this performance of the Quintet,
marginally less so by the Quartet in my full review of the
parent CD. You may prefer the Fine Arts Quartet version of all
three Schumann Quartets on Naxos 8.570151, available from
passionato
or classicsonline
in 320k mp3 transfers – see review
by Göran Forsling – an inexpensive enough proposition to allow you
to buy the Hyperion too for the sake of the Quintet, since
the slightly short playing time is offset by a reduction in the
price of the download to £6.99. I should add that others have been
more impressed than me by both works on the Hyperion CD.

See
my review
of the recent Naxos recording of the Naxos recording of the Franck
Quartet and Piano Quintet (8.572009) for a detailed comparison
with this recording, concluding with a marginal preference for this
Hyperion disc.

A
most interesting alternative to the Naxos version of the Grand
Fantasia, which I reviewed in the September,
2009, Roundup. For full details of this enterprising Toccata
release, see Rob Barnett’s review
of the CD.

“An
out-and-out winner” – see review
by John Quinn. If you didn’t know, I doubt that you would imagine
that the originals of the Préludes were for the piano, so
convincing is the orchestration. The mp3 sound is good.

Bob
Briggs was slightly less won over by this second volume – see review
– but, if you succumb to the manifold charms of the first, as I
did, you’ll probably like the second equally well. Performances
and recording (and the mp3 transfer) are all good. Please note:
the current Penguin Guide wrongly implies that CDHLL7518 is a 2-CD
set.

An
alternative, equally fine way to obtain Mai-Dun, coupled
with the unjustly neglected Piano Concerto. Gwyn Parry-Jones
speaks for me: “I recommend this
outstanding recording with enthusiasm, and it would make an unbeatable
introduction to Ireland’s music for anyone wishing to take the plunge;
it’s well worth it!” (See review).
The lossless sound is excellent – I chose the wma version. The
mp3 is slightly less expensive.

eMusic
have Eric Parkin’s earlier performances of the Piano Concerto
and Legend with Sir Adrian Boult (Lyrita
SRCD.247) and Mai-Dun, etc., another Boult recording
(Lyrita
SRCD.240). I can’t vouch for these as downloads, but the parent
CDs are superb – buy them direct from MusicWeb
if you’re unsure about downloading.

This is “a thoughtfully
compiled programme, finely recorded, and containing really impressive
performances of all the music.” – see review
by Gwyn Parry-Jones. Again, the mp3 transfer is at the highest
level; short of lossless recordings from the likes of Gimell, Linn,
Hyperion and Chandos, this is as good as downloaded sound gets.
The inclusion of the folksong version of Brigg Fair to set
alongside the Delius and Grainger versions makes this issue especially
valuable.

Review
IndexesBy
Label Select a label and
all reviews are listed in Catalogue orderBy
MasterworkLinks
from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to
the review
indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Reviews
from previous monthsJoin the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the
discs reviewed. detailsWe welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin
Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to
which you refer.